Nanaimo, British Columbia · March 2022
A couple paid fees for a year on a prize of $18.5 million and a Mercedes
Lost almost $400,000
Early in 2021, a couple in their late eighties got a phone call. They had won $18.5 million and a Mercedes-Benz, they were told, but would have to pay administrative fees to collect.
Over the year that followed, they received official-looking documents and weekly calls telling them to pay taxes and other fees, by bank drafts sent to different addresses. By the time police were involved, they had lost almost $400,000.
Police said the people behind it will not stop until “there is no more money to give, or you figure out it is a scam.”
The Canadian Press, on CBC News, 10 March 2022. “Vancouver Island couple lose $400,000 in lottery scam, police say”
Step by step, and what stops each one
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Stage 01
A phone call: they had won.
What stops it here
A prize you did not enter is not a prize. Hang up; there is nothing to check.
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Stage 03
Official-looking documents, and weekly calls.
What stops it here
Letterheads and seals cost nothing to print. What a real prize never does is cost money to collect.
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Stage 04
Administrative fees, before the prize could be paid.
What stops it here
Real winnings arrive with any tax already taken off. A fee asked for first is the scam.
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Stage 06
Taxes and fees, by bank draft, every week for a year.
What stops it here
Keep a list of every payment and its date. A year of it, shown to one person, makes the pattern plain in a minute.